wellington womble
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The perrenial table bird debateI am thinking of raising some table chickens next spring. I thought I would get a couple of silkies and some hatching eggs and see how it goes. I'm not concerned with eggs especially, as I won't keep any except the silkies over the winter.
I want roast chicken, with tender breast meat, on happy birds (not birds that can't walk!) I generally buy proper free range chicken from local producers, so I'm used to real chicken, but I don't want a tough gamey old bird!
So, what breed, and what age to slaughter? And how many chicks will the silkies be able to manage?
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Bungo
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We have Indian Game and Welsh Blacks originally sourced from Castle Farm . They are very hardy, and we slaughter from 4 months (cocks) onwards. Up to a year they roast well, after that its stewing job.
They are also easy to hand pluck.(A consideration if you have a lot to do ).
Don't know about silkies , but IG are very good broodies and usually let ours have 6 chicks at a time, one mother raised 3 batches last year.
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Cathryn
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I have the same birds and would agree with Bungo (except that my attempts to produce meat birds has failed repeatedly over the years). Don't let them get too old though they really do get very tough.
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wellington womble
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Thank you. They won't make it to a year, I plan to buy hatching eggs in the spring, and despatch the birds in the late summer and early autumn in smallish batches. I have a man with a machine for plucking, fortunately.
Cathryn, what is too old in your opinion? There is much variation on this!
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Cathryn
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I'm no good on this, mine never get to the pot. I have given up trying to hatch table birds.
I've also just realised that my two remaining birds from Castle Rock have been killed by the badger, along with my favourite silver bantam.
I would give up entirely but I would miss the fresh eggs. (I'm also too tired to make rational decisions today.)
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Bungo
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Never too old if you stew long enough( or own pressure cooker) , and brilliant flavor . But wouldn't try roasting over year old.
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Mutton
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We tend to coq au vin and variants thereof in a slow cooker. I like the flavour of roast bird, but dealing with the carcase afterwards a lot less so - I am less keen on the flavour of re-heated roast and roast chopped up into a curry etc. So we tend to put legs and wings into the slow cooker with onion, tomato, wine and mushrooms (or other variants) and cook gently all day. The breast meat goes in the freezer and the carcase goes in the other slow cooker, simmered for stock and then lentils and veg added. The breasts will then be cooked on a different day, in the slow cooker, often with a little butter and onions. They could be roasted in the oven, but we generally can't be faffed.
Apart from our mongrel cockerels we had a run of Silver Sussex - they are good big birds and were fine.
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wellington womble
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Thank you - I'm not fond of dark meat or slow cooked chicken really - there's enough of that on the legs - so I'm really keen to get good roasters. There are just so many opinions on what to raise and when to despatch.
Sorry to hear about your birds, Cathryn.
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Mutton
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Well, don't rule out Sussexes - I was under the impression they were a reasonable dual purpose bird. Certainly a good size. Maybe someone else on here can tell you about trad roasting one of them.
Other than that I think the term you are looking for other than dual purpose, would be utility (someone may be along shortly to correct that).
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wellington womble
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I thought dual purpose were bred to be good layers as well? I'm not bothered about eggs, really. I'm planning on about thirty or so birds, and we are a household of one-and-a-bit. Although we like eggs and I do lots of baking, I really can't imagine what I might do with all those eggs, if they are even reasonable layers!
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Mutton
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Ooops, you did say that at the top. Just the mention of cockerels etc in the thread and my head reverted to our chicken keeping of eating most of the cockerels and keeping the egg layers.
That's a lot of roast chicken you're planning on there......
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wellington womble
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Some will of to a friend who is involved in fox control and despatch also to supply family. There is no other stock on the 2 acres, and over that period I'm not expecting massive feed costs. I've plenty of housing that's just deteriorating. If I'm going to look after birds it may as well be a years worth!
Thinking about it (and accounting for infertile eggs and a few losses) it's only a chicken once a fortnight.
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